Beam me up: a Tudor rectory transported

Ancient woodwork and strong colours take this idyllic Devon home to a new level

There is an air of escapism about this Devonshire home. A former rectory at the end of a quiet lane, it looks every inch the rural idyll. It even has roses climbing around the front door. But step inside and a different version of country living unfolds – equally escapist, but in a darker and more dramatic vein.

“I think when you walk into a room, it should make you feel something, be it cosy, intriguing or startling,” says Susy Parker, who gave the house a big makeover when she and her family moved here two years ago. Her husband Ben, a doctor, was offered a job locally and it didn’t take much to persuade her, plus their children, twins Oscar and Felix, nine, and Darcy, three, to make the move.

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from Home And Garden | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2CMUx93
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Beam me up: a Tudor rectory transported

Ancient woodwork and strong colours take this idyllic Devon home to a new level

There is an air of escapism about this Devonshire home. A former rectory at the end of a quiet lane, it looks every inch the rural idyll. It even has roses climbing around the front door. But step inside and a different version of country living unfolds – equally escapist, but in a darker and more dramatic vein.

“I think when you walk into a room, it should make you feel something, be it cosy, intriguing or startling,” says Susy Parker, who gave the house a big makeover when she and her family moved here two years ago. Her husband Ben, a doctor, was offered a job locally and it didn’t take much to persuade her, plus their children, twins Oscar and Felix, nine, and Darcy, three, to make the move.

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from Property | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2CMUx93
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Can selling its homes for the price of an espresso save this Sicilian town? https://t.co/myZLLyGdIH Solicitors & Estate Agents In One Just £899 + vat .. https://t.co/eLmKfiYyW9

Can selling its homes for the price of an espresso save this Sicilian town? https://t.co/myZLLyGdIH Solicitors & Estate Agents In One Just £899 + vat .. https://t.co/eLmKfiYyW9 (via Twitter http://twitter.com/conveyandmove/status/1089164655812136961)

Can selling its homes for the price of an espresso save this Sicilian town?

Buyers flocked to Sambuca last week when it put empty houses on sale at €1 each in a bid to reverse decline. We joined the queue…

Darkness falls on the small town of Sambuca di Sicilia, where the council offices on Corso Umberto have been closed for more than three hours. And yet the phones keep ringing, hour after hour.

“They’re calling from Sydney, London, New York,” says the exhausted deputy mayor, Giuseppe Cacioppo. A week after the town announced it was putting up abandoned homes for sale at a euro each, he has fielded requests for information from all over the globe. By Wednesday last week the council had received more than 300 calls and 94,000 emails. Many prospective buyers, not wanting to miss out, grabbed the first available flight to Palermo.

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from Property | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2WlDDaI
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Green shoots: how veganism is changing gardening

Giving up animal products this year? If so, you might want to rethink how you garden

There are not many big ideas that come along in gardening. After all, horticulture has been much the same since for ever: sow seeds, add manure, water and feed, and kill pests. But now, something revolutionary could transform the staid old world of grow-your-own: vegan gardening.

Unless you’ve been living on Mars, you will be aware that veganism is on the rise: one in eight Britons now identify as vegan or vegetarian; record numbers have gone meat-free this month; and supermarkets and high streets – hello, Greggs – are helping to turn it mainstream. But did you know that gardening can be vegan, too?

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from Home And Garden | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2Mw8xZk
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How to get your garden ready for March | Alys Fowler

Sow chillies now but otherwise it’s time to do some plotting and planning

Thank God January is almost over: it is never an easy month and is made worse by the desperate need to do something, anything, in the garden combined with the ability to do very little. Now (and truthfully spoken, February, too) is not the month to start sowing. The light levels are still too low, the day length too short, the weather too dismal. The exception to the rule are chillies, which benefit from the longest growing season you can eke out. And perhaps leeks and onions, but only if you have heat on which to germinate them and a greenhouse or polytunnel to move them into, because there’s no point in getting them going now only to have to kick them outdoors too early because you’ve run out of windowsills.

Instead, it’s time to do some plotting and planning. Take a long dark evening and go through all your seed packets. Sort into one pile anything that is more than three years old or has only a smattering of seeds. Now you can take stock of what’s left and order new seed. Be systematic, otherwise you’ll go online and order what you think you need only to find you have eight packets of some strangely named squash and no radishes.

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from Home And Garden | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2sNfhJi
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It's time to hang out your bird boxes

Plant a juneberry or visit one of thousands of private gardens that open to the public for charity

Plant this Take advantage of the current tree planting season to add juneberry (Amelanchier lamarckii) to your plot. A tough cookie that suits most garden settings, it offers spring blossom, edible berries loved by birds, and attractive foliage that turns orange-red in autumn. Will reach a height of 5m in a decade.

Hang this If you were given a bird box for Christmas, now is the time to hang it, as birds will start scouting for sites as early as next month. Site away from feeders and other boxes, and out of reach of predators. Existing boxes can be cleaned now: remove old nests, use boiling water to kill parasites and dry thoroughly.

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from Home And Garden | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2Mw835s
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